Carlos Freixas

(31 October 1923 - 26 February 2003, Spain)

Pistol Jim

Carlos Freixas Baleito studied at the Academy of Fine Arts. He had his first steps as an illustrator at the early age of 14, guided by his father Emilio Freixas. As his father's assistant, he saw his first work published in Lecciondes magazine, including the stories 'La Revancha' and 'La Muerte de mi Doble'. Together with his father, he began an assocation with the publishing house Molino. Their collaboration eventually resulted in the publishing project Mosquito, which they started with the aid of Angel Puigmiquel in 1944. Carlos Freixas created his first character at this time, 'Pistol Jim', whose adventures appeared in Gran Chicos and later Plaza El Coyote.

Molino asked him to join the Argentine division of this publishing house in 1947. He moved to Buenos Aires, where he did his frist Argentine comics for Patoruzito. He often collaborated with Alberto Ongaro, who wrote 'Drake el Aventurero' for him and with whom he illustrated Hector German Oesterheld's scripts for 'El Indio Suarez'. Freixas was also the author of 'Darío Malbrán Psicoanalista' for Aventuras magazine, a comic strongly inspired by the atmosphere of Buenos Aires of the time. For Patoruzito he created the boxing comic 'Tucho, de Canilla a Campeón'. He also did several detective ('Elmer King') and motor comics ('Juan Manuel Fangio'). Freixas additinoally returned to publishing in the 1950s.

Although a well-known and respected artist in the Argentine comics scene, homesickness made Freixas decide to leave the country in 1956. Back in Spain, he resumed his collaboration with his father and cooperated on most of Freixas senior's illustration work. He also took on agency work for the British market through Creaciones Editoriales. He appeared in several comic books published by IPC, such as Valentina, Marilyn and Bounty.

Mijn vriendin Agaat (Tina, 24, 1983)

In Spain, he contributed to Juan Martí Pavón's magazine Chito in 1975, and he made a comics adaptation of Joseph Conrad's 'Gaspar Ruiz' as well as some horror stories for Bruguera. Freixas spent the final stages of his career working for US comics (including Marvel's Monsters Unleashed), Sweden ('Joe Dakota' stories for Semic's Colt title) and especially the Netherlands. He was a regular artist on series like 'Marleen' for Dutch girls' magazine Tina through Bardon Art.